Archive for the ‘Tucker 48’ tag

While most of us would love to own an original Tucker automobile, the fact of the matter is that Tuckers don’t come up for sale very often, and few can afford the price of admission when they do. Now that its Cammack Tucker Gallery has opened, the AACA Museum is bringing Tucker automobiles to the masses, albeit in slightly smaller scale, just in time for holiday gift giving.

The museum’s three Tucker automobiles have been recreated in 1/43 scale by Brooklin Models of Bath, Somerset, England, including chassis 1001 (finished in maroon), chassis 1022 (in silver gray) and chassis 1026 (in bronze). Brooklin’s history of crafting 1/43 scale models dates back to 1974, when founder John Hall cast his first car model in resin, using popsicle sticks to stiffen the chassis.

In the early days, the company was based in Brooklin, Ontario, Canada, but relocated to England in 1979. Oddly enough, the brand specializes in American cars, although popular demand saw foreign cars (primarily British models) enter the company’s lineup beginning in 1993. Each model is crafted by hand, and the company’s staff of 25 workers produces around 20,000 models annually. That’s enough to make Brooklin the world’s largest producer of 1/43 scale hand-built white metal models, though such volumes wouldn’t come close to justifying the cost of tooling for die-cast manufacturers.

To craft a new model, Brooklin’s designers seek out the desired automobile and take careful and precise measurements. Next, a model master is made from brass, which allows the production of a vulcanized rubber mold. Molten white metal is poured into these molds to form the body, which is then de-flashed and sprayed with automotive grade finishes. It’s a laborious process, but the elimination of costly tooling (necessary for creating die-cast models) allows Brooklin to produce modest product runs, generally of less than 1,000 pieces. This low volume also allows Brooklin models to retain value better than die-cast models, which are generally produced in significantly higher quantities.

The Tucker 48 models join a long list of unique American vehicles previously produced by Brooklin, including a 1935 Studebaker Commander, a 1941 Packard Clipper, a 1953 Buick Skylark, a 1936 Stout Scarab, a 1938 Phantom Corsair, a 1957 Rambler Rebel, a 1953 Nash-Healey Roadster, a 1955 Hudson Hornet and even a 1937 Pierce-Arrow Travelodge travel trailer.

The three Tucker models are priced at $139.99 each, and are available exclusively from the AACA Museum (which can also be linked through the Hemmings Holiday Gift Guide). For additional details, or to order a Tucker 48 of your own (in 1/43 scale, of course), visit AACAMuseumRetail.com.

Tucker family members gathered for the grand opening of the Cammack Tucker Gallery. Photos by author.

Three generations of Tuckers gathered Wednesday evening in Hershey for the grand opening of what one described as “the center of the Tucker universe,” the Cammack Tucker exhibit at the AACA Museum.

“There’s nothing of this magnitude anywhere else,” said Sean Tucker, grandson of Tucker automobiles founder Preston Tucker. “The cars in the museums across the country, their owners have put together good exhibits, but here, you’ve got the test chassis with the 589 – you’ll never see that anywhere else.”

Credit that to David Cammack, the longtime Tucker collector who brought under one roof not only the test chassis for the Tucker 48, but also Tuckers numbers 1001, 1022 and 1026, about half a dozen prototype and production Tucker engines, and truckloads of memorabilia and materials.

“Dave picked the right cars, the right parts,” Sean said. “This stuff was never even together when Preston was alive, but Dave went out and grabbed it.”

Following Cammack’s death in 2013, the entire collection went to the AACA Museum, to be displayed in a room funded by his brother. The tens of thousands of blueprints and other documents will be housed nearby in the AACA Library.

“This was Dave’s dream,” said John Tucker, Preston Tucker’s son and recently elected president of the Tucker Club of America. “The first time we talked about it was in 1997 at that year’s Tucker meet in Ypsilanti, Michigan. We’d discussed putting the collection in either Ypsilanti or Hershey, and decided Ypsilanti wasn’t quite big enough for the whole collection.”

John, Sean and John’s other son, Mike Tucker, all pitched in as technical and historical advisers for the exhibit, “to tell the story the way it should be told,” John said. Mike’s two young sons, Preston Tucker’s great-grandchildren, have even started to take an interest in the cars, John said.

Design work for the exhibit was handled by Jim Booth of Jim Booth Designs in Halifax, Pennsylvania. Booth, who did the design work for the museum pro bono, said he got the job largely on the strength of other exhibits he had done for the AACA Museum.

“The museum certainly had an idea of what they were looking for, so it was a real fluid process,” Booth said. “I’ve done about 30 exhibits, and for the museum to have the volunteer work they did was absolutely amazing. You don’t see that too often in the museum world.”

The 5,200-square-foot Cammack Tucker gallery will be a permanent exhibit at the AACA Museum. For more information, visit AACAMuseum.org.

Editor’s Note: While researching the 1948 Tucker 48 that RM Auctions has listed for its upcoming Monterey sale, we discovered that Tucker historian Mike Schutta had already compiled the history of the car, which bears chassis number 1036 and body number 1033, and unearthed some salacious tidbits, including ties to the mob, so we thought we’d let Mike tell the story. RM has yet to release a pre-auction estimate for the Tucker.

Tucker #1036 started its life like all the Tucker automobiles at the Tucker plant at 7401 Cicero Avenue on the south side of Chicago, but before #1036 could even be completed, things went badly for the Tucker Corporation and the plant was closed.

Much has been written since 1948 about the demise of the Tucker Corporation. Even a movie was made in 1988. Did the Company fail because of government interference? Did the Big Three automakers have a hand in it? Was the Company simply underfunded from the start? Those questions will never be answered to everyone’s satisfaction. One thing that everyone does agree on is that when the plant closed for the final time, 50 Tucker cars and one prototype were in various stages of completion. One of those cars was Tucker #1036.

It was listed in the bankruptcy court’s inventory taken in March 1949, as being a maroon Tucker, parked in Building #4, with engine number 33585 installed in it, but the car had no transmission. Twelve other Tuckers at the plant also sat with no transmissions. The cars remained that way for more than 19 months, until October 1950, when the court-ordered liquidation sale took place at the Tucker plant. For three days, the auction firm of Samuel L. Winternitz sold off everything that wasn’t nailed down, including 29 Tucker automobiles, one of which was Tucker #1036.

Photos by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy RM Auctions.

The car traveled quickly to the St. Louis area where a transmission was adapted to the car and it became roadworthy. Little did anyone know the car’s history was about to get very interesting.

In the summer of 1951, about 200 miles southwest of St Louis, the Bull Shoals Dam was nearing completion. For four years, beginning in 1947, the Bull Shoals Dam brought construction workers to the area, including the little town of Flippin, Arkansas. During the four years of dam construction, Flippin was a pretty wild place. Construction workers blew off steam and their paychecks in the town of Flippin. Of course, with that much money being spent, it wasn’t long before a few characters with mob ties showed up in Flippin.

One such person was Ova Elijah “Smilin’ Charlie” Stephens. Stephens owned the Highlands Ranch in Douglas County outside Denver, beginning in 1937, and set up gambling enterprises from there. “Smilin’ Charlie” Stephens, the gentleman kingpin of Denver gambling from the 1930s to the 1950s, got his nickname because he never smiled. In the late 1930s, he was sentenced to seven to 10 years at the state penitentiary for conspiracy and assault to commit murder. By the mid 1940s, he was out of prison and looking for new territory. A few years later, he set his sights on the little town of Flippin, and he soon took over the Silver Star Saloon. While gambling and prostitution were never legal in Flippin, Smilin’ Charlie managed to operate and stay clear of the law. During that time, he rolled in the cash and even bought a motel in nearly Midway, Arkansas, to expand his control of the area.

Smilin’ Charlie continued to do well until 1951, when he could see that the dam was soon to be completed and his customers were already leaving town. Local residents were also getting tired of all the headaches that drinking was causing in their little town and were organizing a vote to take the county dry. With the writing on the wall, Smilin’ Charlie found himself a buyer for the Silver Star Saloon. The buyer agreed to pay $75,000 for the business and make a $20,000 down payment. When the buyer could not come up with the down payment money, Smilin’ Charlie accepted a 1948 Tucker automobile in lieu of $3,000 of the down payment money. Soon, the buyer offered a second Tucker in lieu of an additional $3,000 down. With that, Smilin’ Charlie was out of Flippin, and he accepted the two Tucker automobiles as partial down payment for his Saloon and Brothel operation, which by 1952 would go broke.

Stephens loved money more than he did cars, so he quickly sold both Tuckers. One eventually went to Florida, and the other, Tucker #1036, went to Hugo Sills Motors, a Hudson dealer, in Denver.

Photos by Pawel Litwinski, courtesy RM Auctions.

In 1952, Sills put Tucker #1036 up for sale and sold it to Denver machinery salesman Rex McKelvy. Rex McKelvy owned McKelvy Machinery on South Broadway in Denver and lived in Lakewood, Colorado. McKelvy owned the car from 1952 until 1958. In 1958, McKelvy sold #1036 to Arthur H. Christiansen of Denver, who was building a museum on Lookout Mountain in Golden, Colorado. Construction for the museum started in March 1958. Christiansen estimated the land and building would cost about $30,000 and the museum would feature about 70 “unusual, odd, classic and different” cars and carriages valued at $75,000. Cars would include 1903 horseless carriages and a 1948 Tucker Torpedo. Many of them came from his private collection. Grand opening was slated for May 1, 1958. Christiansen said that if the museum received the heavy tourist traffic as was expected, other facets of a museum-type nature might be considered in the area. However, the museum failed quickly, and the cars, including Tucker #1036, were auctioned off in 1959 or 1960. The car was sold at auction for $3,500 to Wayne W. McKinley, a Chevrolet dealer in O’Fallon, Illinois. McKinley owned the car for many years and finally sold it to the Behring Museum, also known as the Blackhawk Museum, in 1988. In December of 1989, the car was restored by Bob Holland at Phaetons and Fins in Menlo Park, California. The Behring sold Tucker #1036 in January 1990 for $500,000 to Japanese collector Nobuyo Sawayama.

Robert Pond next purchased Tucker #1036 and added it to his collection at The Palm Springs Air Museum. The museum housed a vehicle collection numbering near 120 cars, trucks and motorcycles, most, if not all, of them still-running. When Pond died in December 2007, his collection of automobiles eventually went to his granddaughter, Setorii Pond, who showed Tucker #1036 at the 2009 Palm Springs Concours d’Elegance.

Tucker #1036 and the entire Pond Collection of automobiles was sold to its present owner in 2012 for an undisclosed amount.

UPDATE (20.August 2014): The Tucker sold for $1,567,500, including commission.

Later this year, the AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, will open its long-awaited Cammack Tucker Exhibit Gallery. Named in honor of Tucker collector David Cammack, who generously donated three Tucker automobiles and associated memorabilia to the museum, its grand opening is still months away. On April 25, however, brand aficionados will have a chance to immerse themselves in all things Tucker as the AACA Museum presents “An Evening with the Tuckers.”

The evening will include a cocktail reception, formal dinner, live auction and presentations. Automobiles to be displayed include the original “Tin Goose” Tucker prototype, on loan from the Swigart Museum in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and a “New Tucker ’48,” as created by father and son car builders Bob and Rob Ida. The New Tucker ’48, already on display at the museum, was created by Rob Ida in honor of his grandfather, Joe Ida, who (briefly) owned a Tucker dealership in Yonkers, New York, and never stopped believing in Preston Tucker’s vision of the modern automobile.

Both Rob and Bob Ida will be on hand to speak on the Tucker’s design features and construction, particularly relevant because the Idas are currently working on a recreation of the Tucker Torpedo concept that, in reality, never progressed beyond a scale model. Joining them will be Steve Tremulis, nephew of designer Alex Tremulis, along with several members of the Tucker family, including Preston Tucker’s grandson John Tucker Jr., and great-grandsons Mike and Sean Tucker (the latter of whom is an automotive engineer and a consultant for the Idas on the Tucker Torpedo project). The group will share personal stories and will host a question-and-answer session following the presentations.

This is a formal event, so proper attire is required (but period dress is preferred) and space is limited. Proceeds raised will go to support the permanent Cammack Tucker Exhibit Gallery, and a portion of the event fee is tax-deductible. For complete details, visit AACAMuseum.org.

With American innovation as the theme of this year’s Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance, concours organizers gravitated toward two of the country’s most out-of-the-box cars for its featured marques: the front-wheel-drive Cord and the rear-engine Tucker 48, both of which exemplify the merger of aesthetics, science and innovation.

Cord was the first domestic automaker to develop front-wheel drive automobiles, beginning with the conventionally styled Cord L29, introduced in 1929. Cord’s Model 810 (and later, Model 812) continued the front-wheel-drive layout, but wrapped it in a Gordon M. Buehrig-designed body that has been called “the single most beautiful American car,” and remains an instantly recognizable design to this day. From its coffin-shaped nose, to its hidden headlamps, to its lines unmarred by running boards, the Cord 810 and 812 set a standard of design that was years ahead of its time.

Tucker 48, #1026. Photo by David LaChance.

The Tucker 48 was to have been Preston Tucker’s vision of the ultimate in automotive design, safety and innovation. The unique rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive automobile was to have featured an air-cooled, flat-six engine mounted on a removable subframe for easy service; disc brakes; a safety cell passenger compartment, seat belts; and a perimeter frame with an integrated roll bar for the ultimate in passenger safety. The Tucker 48 never officially entered production, and while the 50 or so prototypes lacked many of Preston Tucker’s intended innovations, they ultimately came to symbolize one man’s vision of beating the Detroit Big Three at their own game. Preston Tucker may have failed in his efforts, but no one can deny that he he gave it his best shot.

Other classes announced for the 2014 Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance include Duesenberg; Pre-War Innovation (Steam, Electric, Diesel); American Classics Open (1925-1948); American Classics Closed (1925-1948); European Classics, including Rolls-Royce and Bentley (1925-1948); Post-War European (Focus on Innovative Cars); Post-War American (Focus on Innovative Cars); Woodies (1928-1951); Microcars; Volkswagen; Porsche 900; Shelby Design; Mustang (1964-1970); Ferrari (1950-1972); Morgan (Including Three-Wheelers); Post-War European Sports Under 3.0-Liters (1946-1965); Post-War European Sports Over 3.0-Liters (1946-1965); and Innovative Hot Rods and Customs. In addition, the 50th anniversary of both the Ford Mustang and the Porsche 911 will be recognized with dedicated exhibits.

The 2014 Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance will take place Sunday, September 14, at the Trump National Golf Club in Palos Verdes, California. For additional details, visit PVConcours.org.

It was back in May that we shared news of the unique and adventurous journey of Wowan, Queensland, native Brendan Edgerton, who was on a round-the-world quest to see as many of the remaining Tucker 48 automobiles as possible. He completed his journey on November 27, 2013. After Brendan left the United States, he traveled through the U.K., Europe, and Russia before returning to Australia in late November.

He has recently finished writing an account of his 300-day Tucker-scouting expedition, titled 300 Days Around the World in Search of the Lost Tuckers, which is now in the editing phase and will soon be published; visit his website to see trip photos and videos, and to remain updated about his book.

He has kindly shared a synopsis of the trip, reprinted below, for readers of the Hemmings Blog. You can follow Brendan’s updates on Facebook.

300 Days Around the World in Search of the Lost Tuckers

On the first of February 2013, I left Australia on my 300-day trip around the world to see as many Tuckers as I could, to circumnavigate the globe and to have the adventure of a lifetime. My vehicle of choice was a 1989 Holden VN Commodore with over three hundred thousand kilometres [186,400 miles] on the clock, which I bought for $150.00 from a wrecking yard. Straight away, I realised there was something special about this car, and it was soon painted up to resemble a Blues Brothers Mobile; it’s now the veteran of two Around Australia documentaries (30 Sheds in 30 Days and 30 Pubs in 30 Days). The car has been nicknamed the “Bullet” due to its bulletproof reliability.

You would think that mechanical issues would be one of the biggest hurdles on a trip like this, but no – insurance and customs issues nearly ended the trip several times before even a wheel was turned. 300 days sounds like a long time, but when you consider that nearly 18 weeks were spent in different countries waiting for the vehicle to arrive, that is nearly half of the 300 days.

Once the vehicle cleared customs in San Francisco, the real trip could begin. I was instantly successful: Some of the highlights of the trip were sitting in Preston Tucker’s personal car, then sitting in Steve McQueen’s 1956 XKSS Jaguar the very next day. The people that I met over the next four months, and my zigzag path around America taking in some breathtaking scenery, were on their own, a trip of a lifetime. Being invited by Steve Tremulis to see the Gyronaut X1 in its final restoration stages, and later in the trip, meeting Bob Lappan – the record-breaking rider from the Seventies – was a dream come true. Then once again seeing the Gyronaut in New Jersey, and meeting up with living legends Rob and Bob Ida in their workshop, where they are building brand new Tuckers, was a definite high spot on the trip.

I had high expectations of the trip and was disappointed many times in my plight to see Tuckers, but in the end, I managed to see about twenty five real and/or replica Tuckers. I also discovered some very unique cars on my travels, including a one-off Gordon Diamond – and I even had my hopes raised a few times about a “missing” Tucker.

The American leg was over all too soon, and the Bullet was again packed into a container heading for England, where I waited another agonising six weeks; I had more issues with insurance which took up nearly most of those six weeks. I was then told by the UK shipping agent that they didn’t know where the car was, which was gut-wrenching to say the least. But once the Bullet arrived, the next leg of the trip began with a record-breaking attempt at bonnet surfing at the Bell and Gate Hotel in Romford: 16 people stood on the bonnet and pretended to surf like an Aussie, which has become my trademark pose around the world.

I nearly found myself on the wrong side of the law because of some very dubious antics to get the required shots of some iconic land marks in England; luckily, my cheerful larrikin [Aussie slang for youthful hooligan, to us Yanks!] personality got me out of trouble many many times during the trip. A lengthy seven-week tour around Europe was highlighted by meeting up with my internet backgammon friend from Alicante, Spain, then cruising back up to France. You could only imagine some people’s disgust at this dirty old Commodore parked beside some of the most prestigious cars in the world. The media sure liked it, especially when I would stop for photo shoot and surf my bonnet wearing my James Bond outfit.

Heading towards Russia, and the leg to Vladivostok, almost ended the trip when the Latvian police threatened to confiscate my car for ten days due to a little incident that I would rather not talk about. Let’s just say I had to use all my charm and persuasive abilities to get out of that one. Once in Russia, the reality of being in a totally different country and not being able to speak a word of the language hit home.

The Russian leg of the trip was in many ways the most exciting, frustrating, fascinating, dangerous, intriguing part of the adventure, and it’s one of the countries that is on my list to visit again. The 18 day, 10,000-kilometre journey was, in my mind, the highlight of the trip; the challenges that I faced in that time were sometimes insurmountable, and often I would be in tears of frustration and hopelessness. Yet, other times I was fascinated by the country and people and was in tears of joy. The elation of finally making it to Vladivostok was soon overshadowed by my lack of communication skills and the frustration of once again getting my car shipped back to Australia.

There was another six-week wait as I opted for a holiday-type break, this time in Phuket, Thailand, where I intended to recuperate and get on with some serious writing of the book. Things turned out a bit different from what I had planned, as I got well into the swing of life in Phuket and a four-week rest and writing stop turned more into one long party.

Over all too soon, I headed back to Melbourne and awaited the arrival of the Bullet, which originally was to come into Perth; I would then drive across Australia, finishing in Melbourne on the 27th November, but that was not to be. The Bullet was lost at sea, and no one knew where it was or what port it would be coming into. Time was running out and the last leg of the trip needing to be completed – fortunately, I had a backup Bullet ready for something like this. After a brief publicity shoot at Melbourne’s Federation Square, I was off again, this time driving to Perth and back in ten days.

That was an epic adventure all on its own, one would say, but to me – now a serious veteran of long distance driving – it was like a trip to the local store for some milk. On my return to Melbourne, the long-awaited return of the real Bullet happened just one day shy of the 300 day mark. Another publicity shoot at Federation Square with Terry Dowel and his Tucker #1045 marked the official end of the trip.

My adventure has all the earmarks of brilliant planning, skills and persistence, but in reality, it was more down to luck and just giving something a go. The Bullet’s reliability was the backbone of the trip, as it only required two tyres and a muffler bypass in London, a new water pump in Spain, and a headlight globe in Russia. On my return to Australia, the car only required a basic service with one exhaust bracket and one tail light globe to bring it up to standard – not bad.

My adventure not only built up my belief in myself, but it gave me an insight to life, and I now say, “If you can dream it, you can do it!” I have been offered a drive in the upcoming June 2014 Cannonball 2000 event from Prague to London in an Audi RS8 V-10 with Tobbe Lannemar, which I am fairly chuffed about. After this, I intend to continue driving the Bullet around the world, getting as many pictures as I can in front of the world’s iconic landmarks.

Years in the works, the AACA Museum’s planning on the new permanent home for David Cammack’s Tucker collection kicked into high gear earlier this year when the collection made its way from Alexandria, Virginia, to Hershey, Pennsylvania, following Cammack’s death. This week, the museum released their vision for the exhibit and announced a $500,000 capital campaign to fund its construction.

At the time the largest collection of Tuckers and Tucker memorabilia – consisting of three complete cars (#1001, #1022, and #1026), a test chassis, multiple Tucker engines, and tens of thousands of blueprints – Cammack arranged for the donation of the collection to the museum, a natural continuance of the willingness to share the collection with other Tucker and automotive enthusiasts when he had it housed in a nondescript warehouse in Alexandria. “I wouldn’t want it if I had to keep it in a safety deposit box,” he said at one point. “Who wants something like that? You can’t enjoy it and nobody else can. That’s not my nature.”

Photo by the author.

While the 5,200-square-foot gallery that the collection will inhabit at the AACA Museum has hosted other exhibits over the years, it has been earmarked to serve as the permanent home of the Cammack collection since construction of the museum 10 years ago, according to Nancy Gates, the museum’s director of marketing. Cammack’s 50,000 blueprints and other printed materials will head to the AACA Library, though some will be scanned and included as digital files in the exhibit at the museum. Meanwhile, the exhibit will contain a raised platform with architectural glass in the floor to allow viewing of the Tucker test chassis, ringed by the various engines from the collection. The rest of the Jim Booth-designed exhibit will include a representation of a Tucker dealership, interactive displays, and a replica of Preston Tucker’s work desk.

Renderings courtesy AACA Museum.

Gates said that construction should begin in late April, with a projected completion date before the AACA Eastern Fall Meet at Hershey next October. To fund construction of the exhibits, the AACA Museum has kicked off a capital campaign that Gates said will run “as long as it needs to. We want to do this permanent exhibit gallery the right way.” While the AACA Museum has set the goal for the campaign in excess of $500,000, Gates said that $100,000 has already been dedicated to the project and that the total amount could vary depending on how many museum volunteers are able to pitch in on building the exhibit.

Rob Ida’s grandfather, Joe Ida, briefly owned a Tucker dealership in Yonkers, New York, and while the shop closed after just three days in business – a victim of the scandal that enveloped Preston Tucker – the vision of Preston Tucker and his remarkable automobiles stayed with the Ida family. In 2001, Rob and his father, Bob, constructed their first hand-built replica Tucker 48, with the blessing of the Tucker family, and now the pair is moving on to something even more ambitious: creating the Tucker 48′s predecessor, the George Lawson-designed but never-built Tucker Torpedo.

It was Christmas of 1946 when George Lawson presented Preston Tucker with a quarter-scale model of the Tucker Torpedo. Hedging his bets, Lawson styled the model with an asymmetrical design, in order to give Tucker the freedom to choose the preferred design. The passenger side of the model was rather conventional, using a fixed front fender and a fixed headlamp. The driver side, however, used a movable fender that steered with the front wheels, allowing the outboard headlamps to track the vehicle’s path of motion. The central “cyclops” headlamp would light the path directly ahead.

Rob Ida with Sean Tucker, Preston Tucker’s great-grandson.

The Torpedo originally featured sweeping coupe styling, with the driver located along the centerline of the car for optimized handling and improved visibility. Like the Tucker 48, the Tucker Torpedo specified disc brakes and an independent suspension in all four corners and relied upon a rear-mounted, air-cooled flat-six engine. Preston Tucker, however, deemed a slightly more conventional shape as more marketable, so the Torpedo coupe concept was shelved.

History tells us that the Tucker Corporation was shuttered before it could begin full production of the Tucker 48, the victim of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation that ultimately cleared Preston Tucker of all charges. Still, the damage was done, and Tucker died before his vision of building a truly progressive automobile could be realized. It never left the Tucker family, just as it never left the Ida family, and the two began communicating as the Idas began work on the original Tucker 48 recreation. Initially, the plan was for Ida Concepts to build 50 Tucker 48s, each constructed by hand and powered by a rear-mounted Cadillac Northstar V-8. After finishing the first, Rob Ida realized that opening up sales would rob the business of creative control, as each customer would want something increasingly outlandish. With nightmare visions of a flamed-metallic-chartreuse Tucker 48 riding on 24-inch spinners dancing in Ida’s head, he said he realized the path forward was to build the Tucker 48s he wanted to build; if customers wanted to purchase them, fine. If they didn’t, that was fine, too, because Ida Concepts had plenty of other business to fall back on.

Rob Ida’s Tucker Torpedo, contrasted with a period Science Illustrated article on the car.

That was back in 2001, and since then Ida Concepts has built (and sold) four Tucker 48 models. Number five is under construction, and this one will feature a twin-turbo setup on its Cadillac Northstar engine. Because the Northstar platform is getting hard to find these days, Ida said that future Tucker 48 models will rely on the readily available Chevrolet LS-series V-8 for propulsion. With the Tucker 48 challenge met, Ida’s thoughts turned towards recreating the Tucker that never was: the original Torpedo concept, as envisioned by George Lawson. “This Torpedo concept was what really triggered [my grandfather] to put it all on the line,” Ida said. “This was the car that he really wanted.”

Recreating a car that existed in limited numbers is challenging enough, but building a car that existed only as a quarter-scale model creates its own problems. The Petersen Automotive Museum gave Ida access to the original Lawson Torpedo model, and Sean Tucker, Preston Tucker’s great-grandson (and an automotive engineer himself), lent his expertise to the project. Tucker also granted access to the family’s extensive archives, providing rare and original artwork to show what the Torpedo may have looked like. After scanning the original model and creating a full three-dimensional pattern, the Idas then cut out full-size sections of the pattern and assembled them into a wooden buck, which will be used to create the Torpedo’s hand-sculpted aluminum bodywork.

Ida and his team (which includes his father, Bob, and Sean Tucker on a part-time basis) are already a few years into the project, which will take another two years or so to complete. The shop will handle every step of building the car, from creating its steel frame to finishing its paint and upholstery, with the exception of creating the drivetrain. As per Preston Tucker’s original vision, the Torpedo will be rear-engined, powered by an air-cooled flat-six engine. Ida figures that a normally aspirated 3.0-liter Porsche flat-six will give him in the neighborhood of 300 horsepower, which is quite a bit more than Tucker could have envisioned back in 1946.

The Ida Tucker Torpedo already has a home, too. A current Ida Tucker 48 owner saw the designs in the shop and committed to purchasing the car on the spot, regardless of cost. Ida said the full-size Torpedo will include not only the center-position steering from Lawson’s design, but also the fenders and headlamps that turn with the wheels.

The wooden buck built from George Lawson’s original clay model.

“I love the fact that we’re able to kinda reach back there and pull something special out of history and bring it back to life,” Ida said. For more information about the Rob Ida Tuckers, visit RobIdaConcepts.com.

UPDATE (16.May.2014): Below are two new images of the Tucker Torpedo project, courtesy of Rob Ida. The first shows a completed (and steerable) front fender pod, while the second is a Solidworks rendering of the car’s steering wheel, as created by Sean Tucker, Preston Tucker’s grandson.

Fortune, the saying goes, favors the bold. Were that truly the case, the Tucker Model 48 would have been an uncontested success for Tucker Corporation and Preston Thomas Tucker, the visionary jack-of-all-trades inventor behind its creation. Instead, just as production of one of the 20th century’s most innovative automobiles was about to start, the government (as some believe, pressured by Detroit’s Big Three automakers) stepped in and effectively shut Tucker down.

Preston Tucker was not an automotive engineer by trade, though few would argue that he possessed the ability to comprehend and advise on technical matters. With a background that included everything from automotive sales through race car and even armored car design (with partner Harry Miller), it was almost inevitable that Tucker would someday turn his attention towards constructing a production automobile that carried his own name.

As originally envisioned by Tucker, the Tucker Model 48 (named for its debut year of 1948) featured some truly groundbreaking designs. Alex Tremulis George Lawson penned the streamlined coupe bodywork, featuring the driver in a central position instead of offset to the left (a design that would much later be embraced by McLaren on its F1 supercar). Located in the rear of the car, the proposed 589-cu.in. aluminum flat-six engine was so under-stressed that an overhaul would not be required for the first 180,000 miles. Tucker’s original design lacked a conventional transmission, too, and in its place a pair of torque converters would have sent power to the rear wheels.

Instead of just two headlights, the Tucker boasted three, including outboard lights designed to turn with the steering wheel, what we would call “adaptive headlights” today. Underneath, the proposed Tucker design rode on a four-wheel independent suspension with disc brakes at all four corners, while inside it pioneered safety advances like a padded dash, front and rear seat belts and a windshield designed to pop out in a crash.

During the car’s design and early promotion, it was referred to as the Tucker Torpedo, though Tucker himself quickly changed the name to the Tucker 48 to avoid reminding potential buyers of the Second World War. John Eddie Offutt, a mechanic who had previously worked with Tucker and his racing car partner, Harry Miller, on assembling cars for the Indianapolis 500, signed on to assist Alex Tremulis with production of the initial prototype. First revealed via design sketches in late 1946, Tucker began promotion of his revolutionary automobile in March of 1947 with a series of full-page ads in national newspapers, calling the Model 48, “the car you’ve been waiting for.” Follow-up ads would list the innovative proposed features of the Tucker 48, something that would later come back to haunt Tucker in his battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

For a production facility, Tucker opted for the largest single-building factory in the world, the former Dodge B-29 assembly plant in Chicago, Illinois. The War Assets Administration (WAA) agreed to lease the plant to Tucker with the provision that he raise $15 million in working capital by the following year. Partnering with well-funded businessmen would have meant relinquishing control, so Tucker adopted a more innovative way of raising money: He’d sell dealership rights to companies eager to peddle the Tucker 48 to a waiting public. To further boost funding, he’d later offer shares of Tucker Corporation stock to prospective buyers, and would even sell accessory items such as radios to those on the waiting list for a Tucker automobile.

The Alex Tremulis original coupe design was dropped for the initial Tucker concept, replaced by a sedan body penned by Alex Tremulis (with design elements from J. Gordon Lippincott) that would become known as the “Tin Goose.” Revealed to an eager public on June 19, 1947, at Tucker’s massive Chicago plant, the prototype impressed many of the 3,000 people reported to be in attendance. Few noticed that the engine was loud, or that the car overheated while being driven on stage, or even that the prototype lacked a reverse gear. Some critics were less kind, however, pointing out the Tucker’s flaws and even going so far as to call the car a fraud. Tucker had gotten the media exposure he’d hoped for, but negative coverage in the press soon painted the company in an unfavorable light.

It also became clear that the breakthrough designs called for in early ads couldn’t be implemented, at least not at the car’s projected selling price of $2,450. The Ben Parsons-designed flat-six engine was proving troublesome, so the decision was made to fit production models with a 345-cu.in. Franklin six-cylinder engine, manufactured by Air Cooled Motors (which Tucker would soon purchase to reduce supply costs) and intended for use in aircraft. As delivered, the engine was modified from its original air-cooled design to water-cooled, and its output was rated at 166 horsepower and 372 pound-feet of torque. Tucker abandoned the complex torque converter design, instead opting for more conventional Cord pre-selector manual transmissions, and a fastback sedan body style (also penned by Tremulis) with conventional seating for six was chosen for the final design.

Production models did away with seat belts (because Tucker Corporation vice president Fred Rockelman felt they sent a message that the car was unsafe), four-wheel disc brakes and swiveling outboard headlamps, too, mostly in the name of cost savings. The three-headlamp setup remained, however, and the design was changed so that the central headlamp turned with the front wheels. Because volume production had yet to start, each of the cars produced to date (51, counting the Tin Goose prototype, though only about 35 had been finished by the time production ended, and about 58 bodies in total were built) exhibited a few differences from the car that preceded it, leading some to consider all Tuckers as prototypes.

Just as initial Tucker 48 production was beginning to trickle out of the Chicago plant, things went from bad to worse for the Tucker Corporation. In early 1948, the government rejected Tucker’s bid to acquire a war asset steel plant in Cleveland, Ohio. Tucker had submitted the highest bid, but instead the plant was awarded to the company running it, depriving Tucker of a source for low-cost steel. The refusal of the Tucker bid, combined with the launch of an SEC investigation in May of 1948, prompted Tucker to publish a rebuttal in newspapers across the United States on June 15, 1948. In the missive, Preston Tucker detailed his company’s accomplishments (such as designing the model 48 in half the time of a conventional automobile, acquiring the largest factory in the world and establishing a dealer network in advance of production) while intimating that forces within the government and auto industry were conspiring to shut Tucker down.

If 1948 was bad for Tucker and his dream of producing the car of the future, 1949 was worse. Early in the year, the SEC seized the records of the Tucker Corporation and turned control of the company (which had already halted production, laying off some 1,600 employees) over to administrators. Preston Tucker and six other executives were indicted on numerous fraud-related charges, all stemming from the creative ways that Tucker had raised capital to fund Model 48 production, or from the differences between the initially proposed Tucker design and the manufactured Model 48 sedans.

Ultimately, the government failed to prove its case, and on January 22, 1950, Tucker and his executive staff were found not guilty of all charges. The outcome of the trial was moot, however, as the damage to Tucker Corporation had already been done. Its factory was gone, leased by the government to the Lustron Corporation, a manufacturer of pre-fab housing (although Lustron never occupied the entire factory, which Ford later used to build jet engines). Faced with a series of lawsuits from prospective buyers and dealers, as well as an insurmountable accumulation of debt, the assets of the Tucker Corporation (including unsold Model 48 production) sold for a reported 18 cents on the dollar.

To this day, the real story behind the failure of the Tucker Corporation remains unclear, though many buy into the version iterated in the 1988 Francis Ford Coppola film Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Some pin it on the ambitions of Preston Tucker, reportedly far more of a visionary than a businessman. Others blame it on the evil machinations of the Detroit Big Three automakers, who allegedly convinced the government that the success of a small, upstart automaker with a revolutionary design was in nobody’s best interest. While the truth likely lies between these extremes, this much is clear: The Tucker Model 48 gave us a brief glimpse into the future of the automobile, showing what’s possible when automakers favor innovation over profitability.

Thanks to Tucker historian Mike Schutta for his assistance in preparing this article.

As noted earlier this year when Tucker collector David Cammack died – and in David LaChance’s profile of Cammack in the June 2007 issue of Hemmings Classic Car – Cammack had arranged to donate the entire collection to the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where a 3,500-square-foot room had been built specifically to exhibit the collection. It took a few months, but the museum recently began the process of taking inventory of the massive collection and moving it from its longtime home in Alexandria, Virginia.

Scheduled to open in the fall of 2014, the exhibit will include not only three Tucker cars – 1001, 1022, and 1026, all painstakingly restored – but also several complete engines, test stands, suspension parts, Tucker Y-1 transmissions and many other replacement and restoration parts that Cammack had collected. Also making the journey to Pennsylvania will be a good number of original Tucker documents, including about 50,000 blueprints, only 10 percent of which have so far been cataloged.

According to the AACA Museum, the Tuckers are shown in the photos on rollbacks; they were later transferred to enclosed trailers for the interstate trip.